Brexit and the attempted Blairite coup against Jeremy Corbyn

Victory
for Brexit In EU

Referendum: Working Class

Brits Stick Two Fingers Up
At

the Political and Financial

Elites

The
vote to exit the EU has shocked the financial and political elites
and led to massive turmoil on global stock markets. The corporate
media is full of shocked pundits lamenting the democratic decision of
British people for Brexit. Brexit voters are being blamed for
everything from the rise in racism against immigrant families to the
increased dangers of terrorist attacks.

The
corporate media both in Britain and internationally are furious with
the British electorate for voting for Brexit. They never saw it
coming and still don’t understand why ordinary people voted for
Brexit. More than this, they still don’t understand how the Brexit
vote reveals how completely out of touch the corporate media and the
political/financial elites are with the millions of working class
people who voted for Brexit.

Let’s
be very clear about this: the vote for Brexit was a working class
rebellion against the financial and political elites of Britain who
have presided over a massive redistribution of wealth in favour of
the super rich leaving a fifth of the population in poverty. Analysis
of the referendum vote shows how the poorer an area was the higher
the vote was for Brexit.

The
working class stood up to massive pressure from the Bremain camp that
included: all of the mainstream political parties, the Bank of
England, CBI, IMF, ECB, Obama, the World Bank and the trade union
bureaucrats.

The
vote for Brexit shows how out of touch the establishment advocates of
the EU are with working class people. Millions of working class
people are struggling to get by with declining wages, incessant
benefit cuts, zero hour contracts, mass unemployment, food banks and
poor housing that are putting their families and communities under
intense strain. On top of this, working class people suffer the most
from the cuts to the welfare state and the incessant cuts to local
council services.

Working
class people are not stupid they can how the EU is a fundamentally
undemocratic organisation that is completely unaccountable to them.
The secret negotiations between the EU and the Obama administration
over TTIP, which members of the European Parliament have no say over,
proves conclusively how this is an organisation run for the benefit
of the too big to fail banks and the multi-national corporations.

They
can see how the undemocratic EU has bludgeoned the people of Greece
into living in permanent austerity and mass poverty despite a
referendum last year that decisively rejected austerity measures.
Obama’s favourite economist Paul Krugman called the EU’s
intervention into Greece last year a ‘coup d’etat’.

The
advocates of Bremain such as Mark Carney (ex-Goldman Sachs), Prime
Minister Cameron (from a tax avoiding banker family) George Osborne
(son of a Baronet) warned working class people that Brexit would
lower their living standards more than any other group in UK society.

However,
millions of working class people were not taken in by the crocodile
tears coming from those responsible for creating a massively unequal
society. Quantitative easing and ZIRP have made the super rich
fabulously richer as they have benefited from the massive bubbles on
the stock market and in property. The top 10% of society own 45% of
all wealth totalling over £5 trillion while the bottom 50% of
society own a pathetic 9% of the wealth.

Prime
Minister Cameron’s government has presided over a savage attack
upon welfare benefits which have led to one and half million benefit
sanctions leaving people totally destitute and leading to hundreds of
people committing suicide. The attack on welfare benefits for
disabled people have been so severe that it has prompted the UN to
launch an investigation into the human rights violations of disabled
people.

The
political and financial elites who advocated that Britain should stay
in the EU are puzzled as to why so many working class people
stubbornly support Brexit. They are incapable of comprehending the
anger, pain and suffering of millions of working class people who
feel increasing contempt towards a political and financial elite that
has no understanding of their daily lives. Over 13 million live in
poverty (1 in 5 of the population) while 15 million live in
inadequate housing conditions.

This
inchoate anger at the daily reality that confronts them has few
outlets in life. The EU referendum provided working class people with
a means of sticking two fingers up at the political and financial
establishment which now presides over a very divided country along
lines of class and geography.

The
Brexit vote has led to unprecedented turmoil in both of the main
political parties in Britain.

A
weak, divided Conservative government now faces a further period of
infighting as it selects a replacement for David Cameron. The raw
wounds within the Conservative Party will not be able to heal as
Brexiteers such as Justice Secretary Michael Gove and former Defence
Secretary Liam Fox go head to head with those who backed staying in
the EU such as Home Secretary Theresa May and Pensions Secretary
Stephen Crabb.

The
financial and political elites have suffered a major defeat. The
Conservative Party is one of the oldest and most successful political
parties in history and has served the British ruling class well for
over two hundred years. Now it faces an unprecedented crisis and is
unable to effectively govern. It will face huge challenges as the
world economy slides into another recession.

This
situation presents the opposition Labour Party with a golden
opportunity to deal a knock out blow to the Conservative government’s
programme of endless austerity and huge public spending cuts.
However, the right wing of the Labour Party known as the Blairites,
after former Prime Minster Tony Blair, have seen fit to launch their
long awaited coup against its socialist leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The
‘Red Tories’ within the Parliamentary Labour Party have let the
Conservative government off the hook and are going to launch a
leadership challenge to Corbyn. They have remorselessly attacked
Corbyn in the corporate media and effectively acted as agents of the
ruling class in the Labour movement.

This
has provoked a furious backlash from thousands of trade unionists and
socialists all over Britain who see Corbyn as offering an opportunity
to defeat the austerity agenda of the Conservatives that has
inflicted hardship and suffering upon millions of people. If Corbyn
can harness the huge mood of discontent revealed by the Brexit vote
he has the opportunity to not only defeat the right wing of the
Labour Party, but to go on to defeat the Conservatives in the next
general election. An election that may be months away.

A
powerful British public relations firm with close ties to former
Prime Minister Tony Blair and key Labour officials behind the coup to
oust Jeremy Corbyn knew of “mass resignation” plans half a year
ago.

“Portland
Communications is a political consultancy and public relations agency
set up in 2001 by Tim Allan, a former adviser to Tony Blair and
director of communications at BSkyB,” reported The
Canary’s Steve
Topple, who also noted the PR agency’s wide-ranging connections to
British media, including Sky News, ITN and the BBC:

To
spell it out in layman’s terms, Portland Communications is a
company organised, fronted and controlled by a plethora of
apparatchiks of Tony Blair and the centre-right of Labour.

Topple
also revealed that numerous employees, partners and associates of
Portland Communications have ties to the London-based Labour
think-tank, the Fabian Society.

On
Monday, The
Canary confirmed
that the self-styled Blairite Labour MP, Conor McGinn, who
coordinated the mass resignations in the party over the weekend with
former Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn, was part of a
Blairite network surrounding the Fabians.

Under
the deputy leadership of Marcus Roberts, from 2011 onwards the Fabian
Society had been tasked to help ‘re-found’ the Labour Party
under the direction of former Blair minister Peter Hain. The process
had been criticised internally at the time for bypassing the wider
party.

“Mass
resignations” pact

Yet
new evidence obtained by The
Canary confirms
that Portland Communications was aware of a “pact” between Jeremy
Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet members to trigger “mass resignations”
as long as six months ago.

In
January 2016, a Portland Communications analysis posted on the
agency’s website refers to the first reshuffle of Corbyn’s Shadow
Cabinet.

The
post reveals that the Blairite PR agency was well-acquainted with the
informal internal networks of organising between anti-Corbyn Labour
politicians. It also confirms that the firm has long been aware that
“mass resignations” were viewed by the Shadow Cabinet as a
political option to sideline Corbyn – six months before the EU
referendum was to take place.

Point
4 of the Portland Communications analysis reads as follows:

The
‘Anyone But Corbyn’ MPs are getting organised. Almost as soon as
Dugher was removed texts went out to MPs and prominent Labour figures
with the lines to take in support of him. The ensuing outpouring of
dismay on social media from MPs would have helped to close down
Corbyn’s options. Whilst these texts/WhatsApp groups are standard
practice now, what is more interesting is the rumoured NATO-style
pact amongst moderate members of the Shadow Cabinet which would mean
mass resignations if key moderates are removed from posts.

The
passage refers to Jeremy Corbyn’s sacking of Shadow Culture
Secretary Michael Dugher, for spending too much time publicly
attacking his own party.

Conor
McGinn and Michael Dugher, sitting in a tree, plotting mutiny

The
day after the re-shuffle, Labour MP Conor McGinn, who reportedly
orchestrated the mass resignations “for maximum impact” according
to a
censored Sky
News report, released a statement on Twitter implicitly snubbing
Corbyn’s decision:

Dugher,
like McGinn – who has praised Tony Blair’s “transformative”
government and characterised himself as pro-interventionist – is
very much part of the New Labour ‘old guard.’ He previously
served as a senior advisor to Gordon Brown in No. 10.

Shortly
after his sacking, Dugher made no secret of his hopes to oust Corbyn
from his leadership of the party.

At
the end of January, Dugher told the Mail
on Sunday that
if the Labour Party failed to achieve a sufficiently high success
rate in the May elections, including in English town halls, Wales and
the Scottish Parliament, Corbyn would “face a leadership
challenge.”

If
Labour flops, Dugher warned, “Mr Corbyn will have to abandon his
Left-wing policies – or be forced out.”

dominated
by Portland
Communications – played
a pivotal role in organising the uprising in the party after the EU
referendum result.

The
press knew the coup was coming

In
March, the Mailpredicted that
Corbyn “will face a leadership challenge after the EU referendum
this summer.”

The
paper also said:

If
Labour’s Sadiq Khan fails to be elected Mayor of London in May, it
will almost certainly trigger a move from moderates in the party to
oust Mr Corbyn.

The Mail report
indicated that Blairite ‘moderates’ in the party were preparing
for any opportunity to challenge Corbyn’s leadership – from the
Mayoral elections in May, to the EU referendum in July. The paper
named a number of Labour politicians whom sources in the party had
said were “tipped to run as figures who will be able to unite the
party after a year of damaging infighting.”

The
simmering plans – and the reality that they have nothing to do with
the EU referendum – have been corroborated elsewhere.

Reporting
from the Labour Party conference in September 2015, no less, George
Eaton, political editor of theNew
Statesman, noted that: “Corbyn’s
opponents acknowledge that their task next time will be to unite
around one candidate and to back him or her unreservedly.”

Once
again, the elections in May came up as a key test date for Corbyn’s
future for a number of rebel MPs whom the New
Statesman did
not identify. In Eaton’s words:

Some
MPs have earmarked this date as the first possible moment to strike.
Others warn that this strategy could founder if Corbyn exceeds the
low expectations.

Tony
Blair’s PR front group

The
Portland Communications six month old analysis of the “mass
resignation” pact among Shadow Cabinet members was authored by Tom
Mauchline, a Senior Account Manager at the firm.

Mauchline
recorded himself heckling Corbyn at the Pride march on Saturday,
where he demanded the Labour leader’s resignation after the EU
referendum results. The videos, posted to Mauchline’s Twitter
feeds, were almost immediately picked up and broadcast across the
British media.

Mauchline
told The
Canary that
he had no knowledge that mass resignations were impending within the
party, and that he had no formal affiliations with its ‘moderate’
Blairite faction. He conceded, however, that he had “mutual
friends” with senior campaign officials for Labour politicians who
had stood against Corbyn in the leadership elections.

According
to Steve Topple, Mauchline is only one
of several Portland
employees publicly campaigning against Corbyn’s leadership.

Portland
Communications’ senior leadership team has direct ties to the
instigators of the coup. For instance, Kitty Usher – who is on
Portland’s Advisory Board – is a former Parliamentary Private
Secretary to Margaret Hodge – the ex-Blairite Minister and Labour
MP who first tabled the motion for a vote of no confidence against
Corbyn.

In
other words, the Blairite PR firm that had anticipated the Labour
“mass resignation” coup to oust Corbyn half a year ago has
ties to the very organisers of the coup.

Jeremy
Corbyn would win an even bigger landslide if Labour MPs forced him to
undergo a fresh leadership election, a new poll has revealed.

The
ElectionData/YouGov poll of party members found that 62% would
re-elect Mr Corbyn, up from the 59.5% of first preferences he
received when he swept to victory last September.

According
to the new survey for pollster Ian Warren, he would easily beat his
nearest rivals Hilary Benn (15%) and Dan Jarvis (12%) in a fresh
contest.....

Nearly
three quarters of members (72%) currently approve of Mr Corbyn as
leader, and more than half (53%) think he should lead the party into
the 2020 general election - even if Labour does badly in this May’s
local, London, Welsh and Scottish elections.

Guardian
sinks into gutter on Corbyn – again

by Jonathan
Cook

Jeremy
Corbyn today launched a review into the Labour party’s supposed
“anti-semitism crisis” – in fact, a crisis entirely confected
by a toxic mix of the right, Israel supporters and the media. I have
repeatedly pointed out that misleading claims of anti-semitism (along
with much else) are being thrown at Corbyn to discredit him. You can
read my criticisms of this campaign and Labour’s
reponse here, here and here.

In
his speech, Corbyn made an entirely fair point that Jews should not
be blamed for the behaviour of Israel any more than Muslims should be
for the behaviour of states that are Islamic. He said:

Our
Jewish friends are no more responsible for the actions of Israel or
the Netanyahu government than our Muslim friends are for those of
various self-styled Islamic states or organisations.

But
no matter what he said, the usual suspects are now accusing him of
comparing Israel with Islamic State, even though that is clearly not
what he said – not even close.

First,
even if he had said “Islamic State”, which he didn’t, that
would not have meant he made a comparison with Israel. He was
comparing the assumptions some people make that Jews and Muslims have
tribal allegiances based on their religious or ethnic background. He
was saying it was unfair to make such assumptions of either Jews or
Muslims.

In
fact, such an assumption (which Corbyn does not share) would be more
unfair to Muslims than to Jews. It would suggest that some Muslims
easily feel an affinity with a terror organisation, while some Jews
feel an affinity with a recognised state (which may or may not
include their support for the occupation). That assumption is far
uglier towards Muslims than it is towards Jews.

But,
of course, all of this is irrelevant because Corbyn did not make any
such comparison. He clearly referred to “various self-styled
Islamic states or organisations”. A spokesman later clarified that
he meant “Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran or Hamas in Gaza”. In
other words, “various self-styled Islamic states and organisations”
– just as he said in the speech.

Surprise,
surprise, the supposedly liberal Guardian’s
coverage of this incident is as appalling as that found
in the rightwing Telegraph. The
Guardian has
an article,
quoting rabbis and others, pointing out the irony that Corbyn made an
anti-semitic comment at the launch of an anti-semitism review –
except, of course, that he did’t.

In
fact, contrary to all normal journalism, you have to read the
Guardian story from bottom-up. The last paragraph states:

This
story was amended on 30 June to correct the quotation in the second
paragraph. An earlier version quoted Corbyn as saying: “Our Jewish
friends are no more responsible for the actions for the actions of
Israel or the Netanyahu government than our Islamic friends are
responsible for Islamic State.”

Or
in other words, the Guardian reporter did not even bother to listen
to the video of the speech posted alongside her report on the
Guardian’s own website. Instead she and her editors jumped on the
same bandwagon as everyone else, spreading the same malicious rumours
and misinformation.

When
it later emerged that the story was a complete fabrication – one
they could have proved for themselves had they listened to what
Corbyn really said – they simply appended at the bottom a one-par
mea culpa that almost no one will read. The
Guardian has
continued to publish the same defamatory article, one based on a
deception from start to finish.

This
is the very definition of gutter journalism. And it comes as
the Guardian editor,
Kath Viner, asks (begs?) readers to dig deep in their pockets to
support the Guardian.
Shewrites:

The
Guardian’s role in producing fast, well-sourced, calm, accessible
and intelligent journalism is more important than ever.

Well,
it would be if that is what they were doing. Instead, this story
confirms that the paper is producing the same shop-soiled
disinformation as everyone else.